Lift Upgrading Programme
Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) ( ) is a Singapore Housing and Development Board (HDB) project which upgrades and improves the facilities of the lifts at HDB flats which became an issue in the 2006 general election. This project is for housing blocks built before the year 1990, which were built with lifts that only serve some floors to meet privacy demands and to cut costs. A poll with a 75% majority (calculated among citizen households) in favor is needed for the upgrading to begin. The non-citizen residents who stay in the same HDB block have no polling rights. It was started in 2001, and is expected to be completed by end 2014, although some 200 blocks will still not have direct lift access for all units. HDB will research on ideas to solve these issues through the use of Selective Lift Replacement Programme (SLRP). Prior to the introduction of the LUP, there was no separate programme for lift upgrading, together with several houses as it was offered as part of the HDB’s Main and Interim Upgrading Programmes (MUP and LUP). However, some members of parliament (MPs) were concerned that the implementation of direct lift access in older flats would be delayed because MUP and IUP were longer-term projects. As older flats tended to have more elderly residents, and lift upgrading was the most sought after improvement by HDB dwellers, these MPs urged the government to fast-track the upgrading of lifts by detaching it from the MUP and IUP. In response to the requests from the MPs and the recommendations by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Ageing Population to make homes and the environment more elder-friendly, then Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan announced in parliament on 14 March 2001 that the government would be implementing a stand-alone lift upgrading programme. The government estimated that it would take 15 years and S$4.8 billion to retrofit 4,000 HDB flats with new lifts and shafts. In 2005, the deadline for completion was reduced to 10 years. Overview Singapore is an island country with land limited to 700 square kilometers and a population of 4 million; this population density means it is inevitable that most of its residents must live in high-rise apartments and work in high-rise commercial and industrial buildings. Elevators, escalators and moving walks have become a very important part of day-to-day life in Singapore. The HDB started the Lift Telemonitoring System (TMS) in 1984 to monitor lifts in high-rise public housing. As at Aug 2007, more than 17,500 lifts are monitored by the system. TMS uses SCADA technology to monitor the status of the lifts in real-time from a centralized master station for events such as breakdown and trapped passengers. The lift maintenance companies are automatically notified of any problem and in most cases, repairs are carried out even before a complaint is received. The introduction of TMS has resulted in better lift performance as historical data allowed the Town Councils, who are maintaining the HDB estates, to pinpoint problem areas and improve the method of maintenance. Besides detecting problems with the lifts, TMS can also be used to carry out remote testing of lifts and other emergency standby equipment. The HDB has begun to build more apartment buildings that are taller than 30 stories. For these buildings, existing elevator specifications such as speed, central system and hoist way equipment, will have to be improved for elevator manufacturers to design, supply and install higher speed and more sophisticated types of lifts in HDB estates to ensure better elevator ride, comfort and safety. The Singapore government is in the process of renovating the older public housing estates. Many of these flats had lifts which only stopped at certain floors (e.g. odd/even numbered or every three floors). All lifts installed with staged landings are to be changed so they stop at all floors. The older, conventional relay controlled type would be replaced by new generation lifts with microprocessor control of elevators. The high costs of the LUP and the technical constraints posed by some HDB blocks prompted the HDB to explore new technology and innovative engineering solutions. These include the use of new construction methods and lighter materials, the installation of machine-roomless lifts, bubble (shaftless) lifts and smaller lifts, as well as reconfiguring the lift access with new entry points to residents’ homes. These new innovations had reduced the number of HDB flats ineligible for the LUP from 1,000 in 2005 to 200 by 2013. Incidents Damaged Fujitec elevator in Marsiling On June 9, 2013, a Fujitec elevator at Block 17 Marsiling Lane HDB, Singapore was badly damaged with the landing doors on the ground floor dislodged from the door tracks.What happened to this lift in Marsiling? It was reported that the elevator damage was due to a door alignment defect, which was suspected to be due to vandalism, but it turns out that the damage was suspected to be from misuse by workers. A spokesperson for Fujitec said that workers who move materials in and out of the elevator would use a piece of cardboard or wood to wedge the doors open. This repeated force into the gap, would cause the safety edge to become loose, and lean outwards towards the landing doors and get stuck when the elevator goes upwards, causing the doors to be dislodged from the door tracks.Vandals damaged Marsiling lift but repaired already, says Town Council Malfunctioned Otis elevator in Tampines On May 2013, an elevator in a HDB block in Tampines suddenly ascended with the doors still open when a five years old boy was about to exit the elevator. He was pulled back by his father. It was identified to be Otis. Elevator breakdown in Bukit Batok West On October 18, 2010, an elevator at Block 115 Bukit Batok West HDB which identified to be a ULift had broke down and caused two youngsters to be trapped inside for an hour. Both youngsters were not injured. An investigation had shown that the interlocks has been misused by renovation workers renovating a flat. The renovation company was fined S$2000 and was ordered to pay for the repair works on the elevator. Death of dog in Bukit Batok A dog was strangled to its death in Bukit Batok as the owner entered the elevator witthe dog and the lesh hanging outside the elevator when it acended. The incident was witnessed by an elevator rescue team and the owner was stuck in the elevator for 10 minutes,according to STOMP and The Straits Times. The elevator is most probably Fujitec by the look of the doors. The elevator company was found not responsible for this accident but the dog owner was held responsible. Women's hand severed by HDB elevator doors On October 9, 2015, an incident happened at Block 322 Tah Ching Road in Taman Jurong where a women got stuck in one of the two elevators (Lift B) on the ground floor with her left hand trapped between the elevator doors. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has asked Jurong Town Council to suspend use of the elevator in question and to appoint an Authorised Examiner to probe the incident and submit a reportWoman's hand severed after it got stuck between HDB lift doors. The elevator's maintenance was contracted by Sigma. The sensors were found to be working and functional. Design and Aesthetic upgrades Several elevators in Singapore which were upgraded before the year 2000 had aesthetic upgrades. The notable upgrades are: *Adding a wheelchair car operation panel for the disabled for elevators 10 storeys or higher (Completed) *Adding a keypad car operation panel in Mitsubishi elevators in places with high population of senior citizens (Completed) *Adding sensors to door bumpers (Completed) (However some express lifts in Toa Payoh don't have sensors added just yet) *Adding brighter lights in the elevators (In progress) *Adding backup power device for new installations (Completed) *Adding direct intercom communication to the Town Council in the area if a elevator is stuck/malfunctioned (Completed) *Adding CCTV cameras in the elevator (Completed) *Adding fault detectors in elevators (applies mostly for old elevators from the 1980's) (Completed) *Adding enhanced brakes in old elevators installed in the 1970's onwards (in case the ropes snap) (Completed) *Adding mirrors to doors (In progress) *Adding intercom communication with Town Council (In progress) References Category:Public housing in Singapore